What is the Difference between Business Research and Other Disciplines

Business research differs from other disciplines such as scientific research in many ways. Any research conducted by a business or an organisation that needs to make a ‘business’ decision can be classed as business research. By the very nature of this, business research varies in its approach and scope, meaning that it can be closer and further from research conducted in other disciplines. However, some of the most common differences include:

-       Cross discipline approach/ Multi-functional teams.

The majority of businesses are made up of business are differing units and/or departments. Each of these departments have their own interests and require their own information. This makes business research very wide in scope, from why good employees leave business to how macro-economic factors may affect a business. The information for the research may need to come from various departments and from a range of experts.

-       Information is hidden by competitors.

Business secrets are commonplace in many industries. This commercially sensitive information is seen as being a source of competitive advantage by most companies. An example of this is new model features for a product. An example of business research will be to predict sales of a new product about to be released onto the market, this can be very difficult when a company does not know what new features will be introduced on its competitor’s product.

-       Business research cannot be as theoretical and must be experimental.

Businesses are complex systems. Complex systems that do not abide by physical laws or follow models precisely. In physics, if you want to understand the state the future, you tell a model the current state of all the matter and energy, allow a period to pass, and the model will calculate the future state. This cannot be done at to an entire organisation. There are a lot of (sometimes subjective) information about market conditions, political decisions, other company’s decisions and economic activity. This is a lot of variables that do not adhere to laws, before you account for mistakes and psychology. Business studies must be based on experiments and trials to be effective and accurate. There is a large amount of uncertainty that revolves around a business organisation. In science modelling can be done to understand the outcomes of events. This is not always possible in business research.

-       Businesses are not objective by nature

Businesses are in competition for profit, there are winners and losers. Because of this, companies make decisions in their best interests. This may mean that studies conducted or commissioned by business may not be entirely impartial or may have an agenda. There have been opposite results about the effect that fizzy drinks have on soda. This is the difference between research conducted by healthcare professionals and soda companies.